In 2003, using the Earthlink isp, 2 GB of bandwidth per month cost me
$20. Now, with jumpline.com, the cost is $25 per month for 200 GB.
The file sizes have grown considerably since 2003, because I am using
higher resolution graphics.
As of July 1, grand total downloads were approximately 1,069,000 and
people have visited 1,557,000 times.
Last month we used a record 53.5 GB to distribute somewhere between
24,000 and 32,000 papers. (The number depends on various factors such
as how you define a download or a robot reader, and whether you count
robot reader activity). There was a lot of overhead last month from
people looking at the News section and other non-Acrobat files.
Anyway, counting one thing and another, it comes to about 1.89 MB per
paper on average, so 200 GB would allow us to distribute ~106,000
papers per month, at a cost of 0.02 cents per paper.
Mailing these papers would cost $1 or $2 each, depending on copy
charges and postage. Internet distribution is thus roughly 10,000
times cheaper, an astounding figure. Two things strike me about this:
1. It is a amazing that the Post Office still exists.
2. It would financially impossible to distribute this information
without the Internet. I think cold fusion would have been forgotten.
- Jed
